Did Boston Red Sox pitcher Connor Seabold ignore the one thing manager Alex Cora asked him to do in his start against the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday at Great American Ball Park?
All signs point to the rookie hurler deciding not to take his skipper's advice heading into his first start at the Major League Baseball level since July 8.
At the conclusion of Tuesday's loss in Cincinnati, Cora spoke about how he wanted to experiment with certain pitch usages from the young guns.
"It’s about usage and stuff like that," Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "(Stuff) that’s going to make them better. We’re going to see it (Wednesday) with Connor (Seabold). We want him to use certain pitches, and be aggressive with them, and trust his stuff."
During the game, The Boston Globe's Alex Speier revealed what Cora was referring to.
"Sox want to see Seabold increase his changeup usage this game compared to his earlier starts, see that as a swing-and-miss weapon that can help him navigate an order more than once," Speier tweeted.
Despite Cora's reported request, Seabold threw just 13 changeups compared to 47 fastballs, 24 sliders and a lone curveball.
After the game, Cora might have hinted toward a little frustration.
"The pitch mix, we still have to work on it," Cora told reporters after the game, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "We cannot be so fastball heavy, especially in the division that we play (in). It’s a good first step. The fastball played early on. The slider was better than expected than the one I saw early in the season. The change-up is still one that we want to see a little bit more often. But overall, a solid (outing)."
Unsurprisingly, Seabold's changeup was by far his best pitch in limited use. The pitch registered a 40% whiff rate compared to 15% on his fastball and 9% on his slider, as well as the lowest exit velocity.
Seabold's season-long whiff rate with the changeup is 42.9%, much higher than his fastball at 23.9% and slider at 19.2%.
Despite the potential of the pitch, and the team's request to see it more as of late, Seabold has only featured it 21.5% of the time. The hesitancy to use his best pitch has been a strange storyline and one that will be worth following.
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